"We should be able to go to our holy places, honour our sacred days, and walk the streets, without fear."
Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It's a day of reflection, quiet contemplation, and asking: Where have I been going wrong, and how can I do better? It's a day when thousands of Jews head to synagogue - even if they aren't usually observant. The day is both solemn but hopeful, focusing on forgiveness, repair and renewal to welcome in the new Jewish year.
I haven't observed Yom Kippur for many years; not since I was a child. Back then, I loved it - not just because it meant taking a day off school (although that was a big reason), but because my grandparents would take us to shul (the Yiddish word for synagogue). We'd sit quietly listening to meditative Hebrew prayers, then we'd collect conkers on the nearby common, followed by tea at their house (only for us kids - all the adults were fasting). Every Yom Kippur, even though I'm still working when I shouldn't be, and still eating when I shouldn't be, I miss those days when I connected more deeply with my Judaism, and I wish my grandparents were still here.
However, this year was the first time I felt glad that my grandparents weren't here. I was glad they didn't have to hear the news that the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, on British soil where they were both born and raised, had been attacked by a car-ramming and stabbing, leaving at least two dead and four seriously injured. I was glad that they weren't here to witness this echo of antisemitic terror that they knew so well when they were growing up, when many of their cousins and extended family died in the Holocaust. Back then, Britain felt like a safe haven for Jews. Sadly, it doesn't feel that way anymore.
British Jews are a small community - we make up only 0.5% of the population. Most of us know people who were affected; we spoke to friends who were locked down inside their synagogues in Manchester, terrified, while many of us frantically messaged our loved ones who had gone to shuls around the country, fearing a coordinated attack (this was made even more agonising considering many Jews turn off their phones on Yom Kippur).
Clearly, this attack was designed to hurt the Jewish community in the worst possible way - on our holiest day, in our holiest place. But it didn't happen in isolation. Even though PM Keir Starmer described the events as "shocking", I doubt a single Jew in this country was shocked.
Antisemitic incidents have been on a sharp incline in Britain over the past two years; visibly Jewish people have been attacked in the streets, Jewish schoolgirls have been attacked with glass bottles, Jewish nurseries have been smeared with faeces, synagogues have been graffiti'd - to name just a few. This rise has directly correlated with the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza. In fact, in 2024, 52% of incidents reported to the CST featured rhetoric related to the conflict. This is in combination with the deep-rooted antisemitism, such as Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, and stereotypes, that already existed before 7th October 2023.